Introduction

• Network analysis is one of the important tools for project management.

• Whether major or minor a project has to be completed in a definite time

& at a definite cost.

• The necessary information of any particular data can be represented as a

project network.

• These techniques are very useful for planning, scheduling and executing
large-time bound projects involving careful co-ordination of variety of
complex and interrelated activities
 Objectives of network analysis
• Helpful in planning
• Inter-relationship of various activities
• Cost control
• Minimisation of maintenance time
• Reduction of time
• Control on idle resources
• Avoiding delays, interruptions
 Applications of network analysis
• Planning, scheduling, monitoring and control of large
and complex projects.
• Construction of factories, highways, building,
bridges, cinemas etc.
• Helpful to army for its missile development.
• Assembly line scheduling
• Installation of computers and high tech machineries
• To make marketing strategies
Methodology Involved in Network Analysis

Describing the Project

Diagramming the network

Estimating the time of completion

Deterministic
estimates

Probabilistic
estimates

Monitoring the project progress

 Key terminology
• Activity : All projects may be viewed as composed of activities. It is the
smallest unit of work consuming both time& resources that project
manager should schedule & control.

• An activity is represented by an arrow in network diagram

The head of the arrow shows sequence of

activities.
 Classification of activities
• Predecessor activity: Activities that must be completed immediately prior
to the start of another activity are called predecessor activities.

• Successor activity : activities that cannot be started until one or more of

other activities are completed but immediately succeed them are called
successor activities.

• Concurrent activities: activities that can be accomplished together are

known as concurrent activities.

• Dummy activity: An activity which does not consume any resource but
merely depicts the dependence of one activity on other is called dummy
activity. It is introduced in a network when two or more parallel activities
have the same start and finish nodes.
 Event
• The beginning & end of an activities are called as events .
• Events are represented by numbered circles called nodes.

i j

Event Event
start finish
 Types of Events
• Merge event

• Burst event

• Merge & Burst Event

 Path & Network
• An unbroken chain of activity arrows connecting the initial event to some
other event is called a path.

• A network is the graphical representation of logically & sequentially

connected arrows & nodes representing activities & events of a project . It
is a diagram depicting precedence relationships between different
activities.
 Errors in network logic
• Looping : looping is known as cycling error and creates
an impossible situation and it appears that none of the
activities could ever be completed.

• Dangling : sometimes a project network includes an

activity which does not fit into the end objective of the
project and is carried out without any result related
with completion of the project . Such an error in
network is called dangling
 Guidelines for Network Construction
• A complete network diagram should have one stand point & one finish
point.
• The flow of the diagram should be from left to right.
• Arrows should not be crossed unless it is completely unavoidable.
• Arrows should be kept straight & not curved or bent.
• Angle between arrows should as large as possible.
• Each activity must have a tail or head event.. No two or more activities
may have same tail & head events.
• Once the diagram is complete the nodes should be numbered from left to
right. It should then be possible to address each activity uniquely by its tail
& head event.
 Stages for project management
• Project planning stages : in order to visualize
the sequencing or precedence requirements
of the activities in a project, it is helpful to
draw a network diagram.

• Scheduling stage : once all work packages

have been identified and given unique names
or identifiers, scheduling of the project
• Project control stage :
project control refers to evaluating actual
progress against the plan. If significant
differences are observed, then the scheduling
and resources allocation decisions are
changed to update and revise the
uncompleted part of the project
 Advantages
• Planning & controlling projects
• Flexibility
• Designation of responsibilities
• Achievement of objective with least cost
• Better managerial control
 Limitations of PERT /CPM
• Network diagrams should have clear starting & ending points , which are
independent of each other which may not be possible in real life.

• Another limitation is that it assumes that manager should focus on critical

activities.

• Resources will be available when needed for completion for an an activity

is again unreal.
 Difficulties
• Difficulty in securing realistic time estimates.
• The planning & implementation of networks requires trained staff.
• Developing clear logical network is troublesome.
 Example

Activity Predecessor
activity C
A none 2 4 F
A
B none
D
C A 1
6
D A
B
3 G
E B 5
E
F C

G D&E
Draw the network diagram for the following

Activity Predecessor
activity
A none

B A

C A

D B

E C

F D ,E
 3 D
B
A F
5 6
1 2

C
4 E
 Critical path
• Those activities which contribute directly to the overall duration of the
project constitute critical activities, the critical activities form a chain
running through the network which is called critical path.

• Critical event : the slack of an event is the difference between the latest &
earliest events time. The events with zero slack time are called as critical
events.

• Critical activities : The difference between latest start time & earliest start
time of an activity will indicate amount of time by which the activity can
be delayed without affecting the total project duration. The difference is
usually called total float. Activities with 0 total float are called as critical
activities
 Critical path
• The critical path is the longest path in the network from the starting event
to ending event & defines the minimum time required to complete the
project.

• The critical path is denoted by darker or double lines.

 Difference between PERT & CPM
PERT CPM
A probability model with A deterministic model with well
uncertainty in activity known activity times based upon the
duration . The duration of past experience.
each activity is computed
from multiple time estimates
with a view to take into
account time uncertainty.

It is applied widely for

It is used for construction projects &
planning & scheduling
business problems.
research projects.

CPM deals with cost of project

PERT analysis does not
schedules & minimization.
usually consider costs.
Float : There are many activities where the maximum
time available to finish the activity is more than the time
required to complete the activity. The difference between
the two times is known as float available for the activity.

There are three types of float:

Total float : It is the spare time available when all
preceding activities occur at earliest possible times & all
success ding activities occur at latest possible times.
Total float = Ls – Es or Lf – Ef
• Free float : time available when all preceding
activities occur at the earliest possible time &all
succeeding activities also occur at the earliest possible
times.
• Free float = total float - head event slack
• Independent Float : it may be defined as the
amount of time by which the start of an activity can
be delayed without affecting the earliest start time
of any successor activity , assuming that preceding
activity has finished at its latest finish time.
• Independent Float = free float – tail event slack
 QUESTION :
Activity Predeces Optimistic Most Pessimistic
(to) likely (tp)
sor (tm)
activity
A - 2 3 10
B - 2 3 4
C A 1 2 3
D A 4 6 14
E B 4 5 12
F C 3 4 5
G D,E 1 1 7
 Expected time
Activity Te = to +4tm+tp
6

A(1-2) 4
B(1-3) 3
C(2-4) 2
D(2-5) 7
E(3-5) 6
F(4-6) 4
G(5-6) 2

CRITICAL PATH : 1-2-5-6 or A-D-G

activity te Es Ef = Lf LS = Head Tail Total Free Indep
Es +te Lf -te slack slack float float enden
t
float

1-2 4 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
1-3 3 0 3 5 2 2 0 2 0 0
2-4 2 4 6 9 7 3 0 3 0 0
2-5 7 4 11 11 4 0 0 0 0 0
3-5 6 3 9 11 5 0 2 2 2 0
4-6 4 6 10 13 9 0 3 3 3 0
5-6 2 11 13 13 11 0 0 0 0 0
 PERT
PERT is designed for scheduling complex projects that involve
many inter-related tasks. it improves planning process
because:

1. It forms planner to define the projects various components

activities.
2. It provides a basis for normal time estimates & yet allows
for some measure of optimism or pessimism in estimating
the completion dates.
3. It shows the effects of changes to overall plans they
contemplated.
4. It provides built in means for ongoing evaluation of the plan.
 Continued
• Next meeting